As you know, Empathy has replaced Pidgin as the default instant messaging client in Ubuntu and most Linux distributions. While I don’t really enjoy Empathy, it has a few nice features, one of them being the ability to use Adium themes for the conversations (although some time ago it also worked for Pidgin, but I haven’t tested it in Ubuntu Karmic Koala).

To be able to use Adium conversation styles (themes) in Empathy, create a new empty file in your home folder (/home/USERNAME), let’s call it adiumxtra-install and paste THIS in the newly created file.

Then run the following commands:

chmod 755 /home/USERNAME/adiumxtra-install && gconftool-2 -t string -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/adiumxtra/command "/home/USERNAME/adiumxtra-install %s" && gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/adiumxtra/enabled true && gconftool-2 -t bool -s /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/adiumxtra/needs_terminal false

Replacing the text in bold with the exact path to the script you just created.

Now all you have to do is browse the Adium Message Style gallery and choose some.

To use the themes in Empathy, go to Edit > Preferences, on the Themes tab and select the newly installed Adium themes from the drop-down.

NOTE: only some Adium themes work in Empathy so if some don’t show up in the themes menu, it means it they do not work for Empathy; also, the styles only worked for me when browsing the Adium styles using Google Chrome so if you click the “Install” button on a theme and you get a URL handler error, try Google Chrome.

[via UbuCentrum & OMGUbuntu]